Southwest Airlines Community

Hey Southwest, here's a "DING" for you: About 5% of these posts favor the new rewards program, about 5% are neutral, and about 90% are strongly negative. Worse, the majority of the negative posts seem to be from your long-time loyal, frequent flying, A-list customers who indicate they will start migrating to other airlines and will cancel their SWA credit cards. It's a happy day for your competitors, as they revel in what may be one of your biggest blunders ever. Why? You're not rewarding us for being frequent fliers anymore. You're not even rewarding us for the distances we travel on your airline. Instead, you have created an incentive system (and a very complicated one) for people to buy higher fares. That's all it is, and your sugar-coating is insulting. And who are all these customers your surveyed? Must have been that 5% submitting the favorable posts. I accept that improvements were needed in the reward system. I accept that you need to control costs wherever possible and remain profitable. I accept that change is necessary and not everyone will like it. But the majority seem to feel, as I, that the new reward system is a very bitter pill to swallow. It's a real slap to the face of loyal frequent customers. I expected better from SWA. Nuts about SWA? Not anymore. There are many things I liked (past tense) about flying Southwest. I liked that SW seemed to really care about me as a person. I liked being appreciated and rewarded for being a loyal frequent Southwest customer. I liked that my A-list status gave me priority boarding and access to the bin space, because as a business traveler, time is valuable (but, I can get priority boarding on other airlines also). But, I have noticed, more and more, your fares arent very competitive anymore. The majority of the time, I find cheaper fares with your major competitors. But, I had continued to fly SW and pay the higher fares, because there were enough other incentives for me to do so. But now, you have changed the equation again, and it doesnt add up in favor of Southwest anymore. There really isnt much left that separates you from the other airlines. It was nice doing business with you all these years, but its not anymore, and now its time for me to move on. Your competitors, even the low frills ones, have a lot of worthwhile perks that you dont provide. ... View more

SOUTHWEST HAS CHANGED THE RULES AND I'M NOT PLAYING BY THOSE RULES ANYMORE. As a loyal Southwest customer for over 8 years, I have to say, without a doubt, this is one of the worst moves Southwest has ever made. The new program no longer rewards me for being a frequent Southwest flier. Instead, it rewards people for buying higher fares, even when cheaper fares are available. What a hoax. I guess they want to sell as many of those "business select" seats as possible. For an airline that prides itself on "every seat being a first class seat", it sure seems like they are now trying to create a class structure, based on what people spend. Also, the new program is THE MOST COMPLICATED one I have ever seen for anything in the travel industry, be it airline, hotel or rental car. Absolutely ridiculous. I no longer consider Southwest to be my airline of choice and I will now look at all my other options. I have frequent flier acounts with other airlines and that's where I will be investing my travel money from now on. I would rather earn miles for the distance I fly than for the amount of money I spend. ... View more